I've been gluten-free and lactose-free (and oat-free) for 9 years now. Look here for advice on eating out, brand foods and recipe ideas. Also check out the pages on food preparation and Yes/No foods if you are catering for someone with these food intolerances. There's still a wealth of food out there to be enjoyed!...

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Fed up of horrid over-priced GF cereal, stale bread or tasteless crackers for a quick breakfast?

The following recipes are all things you can make in advance and freeze/refrigerate. The bread/crackers/Farls can be reheated quickly in a toaster if you have a dedicated gluten-free toaster in your kitchen, or grilled. Muffins and bars I either defrost the day before in the fridge or microwave for 30 seconds on high.

Mash the banana with a fork. Add all dry, then wet ingredients and mix well. Spoon the
batter into 12 silicone cupcake moulds (or 8 muffin moulds) and bake for 20-25 mins in a hot oven.
The tops should rise lots and be nicely browned.

Serve warm drizzled with honey (or if you want to eat them cold, sweeten before baking by adding 1/2 cup sugar to the batter mix).

Banana Bread4 oz vegan margarine5 oz sugar3 bananas1 egg4 oz Brown rice flour2 oz corn flour2 tsp GF baking soda1-2tsp cinnamon1 tsp vanilla1 cup raisinsCream the margarine and sugar together then add the egg and banana and mix well with a fork. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix to form a thick batter. Spoon the batter into a loaf tin and bake in a hot oven for 1-1/2 hours (until a skewer comes out clean).Fruit 'n' Nut Energy BarsIdeally, I'd find a substitute for the GF breakfast cereal in this recipe as they are so expensive, but as even a tasteless cereal will do in this recipe just buy whatever is cheapest. I will try and adapt this recipe4 big tbsps nut butter4 big tsbsp honey2 cups chopped fruit and nuts (e.g. apricots and almonds)2 cups GF cereal (whatever is cheapest - and tasteless is fine for this recipe!)Melt the honey and butter gently in a big pan. Take off the heat and stir in the fruit, nuts and cereal. Press into a lipped baking sheet lined with baking parchment and leave in the fridge for at least 2 hrs to set. Cut into bars and store in a tuperware in the fridge.

Potato Farls *updated recipe*2 cups mashed potato2 cups GF plain floursaltDry mash the potatoes, adding in a little salt. Mix in the flour quickly and lightly knead. Roll into balls a little smaller than a tennis ball and flatten using a tortilla press. In a non-stick pan, dry fry each round patty for about 2 mins each side until browned and then cut into triangles.Serve hot, buttered with margarine and your favourite topping (e.g. smoked salmon, ham, parma ham, scrambled egg etc).

Monday, August 20, 2012

So here's a rough recipe for a Chinese black bean sauce. I've really missed this kind of earthy-salty-miso type flavour since being GF, as all the ready-made jars of black bean sauce are not gluten-free. But it is worth hunting in your local Asian supermarket for the dried/tinned black beans themselves:

The only ingredients should be the beans, water, salt and possibly sugar. You will need to soak them in hot water for a few minutes and drain before cooking with them as they are very salty..

Friday, August 17, 2012

I really miss the cheap instant egg noodles of my student days. They are pretty unhealthy as they are fried and most of the sauces contain MSG so it is probably a good thing that they are wheat-based and off-limits! Although there are some Thai and Vietnamese brands that do rice noodle versions (see last pic below), I have no idea how likely they are to be GF so will definitely be waiting til I'm not pregnant to test them out.

For instant noodles, you need to buy the thinnest noodles (vermecelli) which are thinner than spaghetti (Asian supermarkets stock loads of brands). Put the first list of ingredients in a bowl, pour over hot water (covering the noodles completely) and cover the bowl with a lid or plate. Leave for 3 mins. Open and drain, then add the remaining sauce ingredients.

So easy and GF - forget powdered hot choc mixes full of gluten and milky rubbish...

1 tsp cocoa
1 cup soya milk
3-5 tsps icing sugar (according to taste)

Put the cocoa and about 2 tbsp of the milk in a mug and mix well to make a chocolatey paste. Now add the rest of the milk and the sugar. Heat in the microwave for 1 1/2 mins on full power and mix again. Ready!

Tip: Once you know your preferred amount of sugar, why not make up a mix in a small tuperware to take to work/on hol? And you can always keep a carton of UHT soya milk handy as it doesn't need refrigerating.If you want it even sweeter, Dr oetker mini marshmallows are GF. Find them with the cake decos in supermarket. Lovely floated on top. Happy, happy!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

This is a mexican recipe which is easy to find elsewhere on the internet and is always GF but usually contains cows cheese (e.g. see mycolumbianrecipes or gfonashoestring). They are a bit like cheesy scones.

Because of the soya cheese (which is harder and drier than normal cheese) I altered the traditional recipe by adding marg and baking powder. The orange rolls in pic above contain Tesco soya medium cheese and the yellow ones Manchego sheep cheese. One batch will make 5 rolls in a normal sized food processor.

Blend the cheese, add the flours and a little salt and blend again until fine. Add the eggs and marg and blend for 2 mins. The dough should start to ball up but keep blending and then it will become a smooth paste (see youtube video). Roll into balls, dusting with corn flour and place on a tray.

Bake for 20 mins in a hot oven until golden, turning once. Serve warm with a little melted margarine.